17 December 2009

ERA: 2009 HCA Trial Outcomes

The Australian Research Council released the outcomes of the 2009 Excellence in Research Australia trial of the Humanities and Creative Arts cluster on 16 December, 2009.

Fifteen universities earned 5-star ratings for outstanding performance, with other nine achieving four stars for excellent performance. These rankings were achieved in half of the Humanities and Creative Arts fields. Philosophy, history and archaeology stood out as high performing disciplines.

The results of the trial demonstrate that in almost all Humanities and Creative Arts disciplines, Australian research performs at a level on par or above the rest of the world. Almost all disciplines have achieved rankings higher than the world performance average of 2 stars, with the average being between 2 and 3 stars.

CHASS Board member Stuart Cunningham said the results showed that exceptional research performance was evident in institutions that had invested in the humanities and creative arts.

2009 CHASS Board members were closely involved in the development of the indicators for the Humanities and Creative Arts cluster. Professor Margaret Seares AO was chair of the Creative Arts sub-committee, and Dr John Byron was on the Humanities sub-committee, which advised on the ERA indicators leading up to the 2009 trial.

A summary of the HCA trial outcomes are available on the ARC website. All institutions have been advised independently of their individual results.

ERA: 2010 Submission Guidelines released

The ARC released the 2010 ERA Submission Guidelines this month. These submission guidelines have been informed by submissions to the ERA Indicators Consultation Paper in October 2009, and by the 2009 ERA Trials. See: related links for background information.

The discipline matrices contain some significant changes in the Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences (SBE) and Humanities and Creative Arts (HCA) clusters. These include:

• Citation Analysis has been removed as an indicator for all SBE disciplines except disciplines within Psychology and Cognitive Sciences.
• All SBE disciplines except disciplines within Psychology and Cognitive Sciences will now nominate 20 per cent of valid research outputs for Peer Review.
• Research commercialisation income has been included as an applied indicator for Demography, Criminology and Anthropology.
• An editor of a prestigious work of reference has been included as an Esteem measure for all Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services disciplines.
• Non-traditional research outputs have been removed as a valid indicator for Social Work.
• Australia Council Grants and Fellowships have been included as esteem measures for all disciplines within Studies in Creative Arts and Writing.
• Registered Designs has been excluded as an Applied indicator for Curatorial and Related Studies.
• An editorial role for A* or A journals has been excluded as an Esteem indicator for the 2010 ERA process.
• Cites in Legal Judgements has been excluded as an indicator for the 2010 ERA process.

There have also been some minor changes in the mechanics of the ERA reporting process, to help ensure that research outputs are assessed within their appropriate FoR designations.

Rules relating to valid research outputs, including non-traditional research outputs, and the eligibility of HDR students remain unchanged from September's ERA Indicators Consultation Paper.

The full journal title list is being released this month. The journal rankings and FoR assignments are currently being revised to incorporate reviewer feedback, with the final Ranked Journal List for the ERA 2010 evaluation to be released in early February 2010.

Institutions will now start collecting the necessary data in preparation for the 2010 ERA process. Submissions for all discipline clusters begin on 1 June, 2010.

Stage 1: 1 June 2010   ERA 2010 Submission Guidelines     [PDF file size: 1.3MB]

Also see: ERA 2010 process key documents

Related links and background information

• September 2009: ERA - Indicators Consultation Paper summary
• September 2009: Indicators Consultation paper for ERA
  Australian Research Council media release
• August 2009: Humanities and Creative Arts: Recognising Esteem Factors and Non-Traditional Publication
  CHASS advocacy paper
• April 2009: A new era for Creative Arts research
  Professor Margaret Seares AO, previous chair of the Creative Arts Committee
• Cluster Two Research Evaluation Committee

 

Heidi Hutchison
Policy and Research Officer
Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

Heidi Hutchison
17 December 2009

 

 

For more information, please contact:

Executive Director

Council of the Humanties, Arts and Social Sciences

Phone: +61 2 6201 2740

director@chass.org.au